Creative Technologies for Knowledge Discovery of Multi-wavelength Datasets

Abstract

The rapid growth of big data presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly in astronomy, where traditional tools struggle with the size and complexity of complete datasets. Existing visualisation tools are limited in providing a flexible frame-work to support an integrated, interactive, and immersive experience, e.g. for multi-wavelength datasets, highlighting the need for innovative approaches for knowledge discovery. This thesis investigates the application of creative technologies, specifically game engine-based environments, as a means to narrow this gap. Central to the thesis is the development of the Multi-Wavelength Galaxy Illustrator (MGI), a soft-ware framework designed to prototype galaxy visualisations. The thesis is grounded in three intersecting research areas: (1) Game engines as adaptable platforms for sci-entific visualisation. (2) The role of immersive technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR), in enhancing knowledge discovery with complex scientific data. (3) knowledge discovery in astronomy. The work demonstrates that a stand-alone software frame-work can be used as one step of a knowledge discovery process for multi-wavelength datasets. By utilising the rendering capabilities of game technologies, the framework enables the display of 2D FITS data within an immersive environment as a computationally efficient alternative to volumetric rendering, facilitating rapid validation and preliminary characterisation of galaxy datasets. The rendering of large sets with up to 900 galaxies in their correct spatial positions in a navigatable scene, where users can switch between different wavelength images of the same galaxies, enables interactive and astronomically meaningful exploration of the scene, and through this the MGI framework has the potential to form an integral part of a knowledge discovery work-flow. The framework features a VR implementation using Unity’s OpenXR plug-in, resulting in an open-source, modular, and repurposable platform with potential applications in both research and public engagement contexts, contributing to the growing conversation on the use of visual and interactive tools to augment scientific inquiry and to the promotion of public engagement in astronomy. After widespread dissemination in the astronomy community, further collaborative research is also envisaged to reveal other useful features in addition to multi-wavelengths, which can equally be studied initially by including MGI in the knowledge discovery workflow rather than astronomers working directly on a large volumetric visualisation.

Date of Award	6 Jan 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Portsmouth
Supervisor	Brett Stevens (Supervisor) & Jiacheng Tan (Supervisor)